Now that we’re into the second month of the new presidency, I find myself feeling a mixture of emotions. Exhausted, first of all, as the pace of everything has speeded up. Enraged at wretched cabinet picks like DeVos–that’s a given.

And yet energized. The success of the Women’s March was a total surprise to me–I hadn’t been following that particular grassroots movement. On the day after the inauguration, a sea of women gathered in DC and around the country (and in many international cities). I was stuck at home proofreading a dystopian novel about zombies taking over after a global disaster. And yet–I felt cheered and comforted by this mass peaceful gathering, the sea of pink. My spirits were lifted.

Even the the Resist movement does not continue on this peaceful route, at least it started out this way. And the only reason it might not continue this way is that the current administration wants chaos.

Humor (like Melissa McCarthy‘s amazing genderbending Saturday Night Live run as press secretary Sean Spicer!) is sustaining me at the moment. And my gut feeling is that this administration will not last very long in its current form. I don’t see it. Because everything’s so speeded up. This is truly the first Internet presidency, with all the destabilization that implies, the first US administration where things happen at the speed of light on Twitter.

The courts are still there, and they have pushed back the powers of the president. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Al Franken are there, outspoken. They are two of my heroes right now.

I’m certain there are more outrages in the works. Yet I remain vaguely hopeful, because I see that few are fooled by what is happening. We don’t quite live in a police state yet.

Women and people of all races are engaged. The media is disgusted. And the sinister truth about what may have happened in the run-up to the election continues to emerge.